Chocolate Chip Muffins
by PurpleAngel87
Summary: An invitation to her High School Reunion gets Caitlyn thinking. Nate/Caitlyn friendship. Vague mentions of Shane/Mitchie.


Disclaimer: I don't own Camp Rock or The New York Times.

AN: It's annoying when you open the Local Election pamphlet for one of the parties involved and realise that one of the candidates running is someone who went to college with you. the only good thing about it is that it helped me write a story. There should probably be some sort of follow up to this, but I'm not promising anything. We'll see. Feedback is always appreciated.

Oh, and why has FF been re-formatting some old stories? It's totally annoying.

* * *

"Hey, Caitlyn."

Nate looked up at the girl in question when she didn't reply. She was sitting at the island in the kitchen with her shoulders hunched over, looking down at a card on her lap. He walked over to her and shook her gently.

"Caitlyn?"

Startled, she jumped and looked up at him, the card fluttering to the floor. He bent down to pick it up before she could and saw that it was an invitation to a school reunion. He blinked when she snatched the card out of his hand and slid off of the stool. She headed over to the calendar and he watched her consult it for a minute before she drew herself up and stepped on the pedal of the bin and let the invitation fall into it. She stared after it for a few seconds before moving away to the cupboards and pulling out several things from the cupboards and shelves. The fact that she was facing away from him was not lost on Nate.

"Caitlyn? What's up?" he asked, concerned. He could tell there was something wrong with his friend, but he knew she wouldn't make it easy for him to find out.

"The ceiling at the moment, Nate," she answered, and he suppressed a smile at how well he knew her. She was still facing away from him, so he moved over to join her, glancing over at the ingredients that she had pulled out.

"You baking something?" he asked.

She nodded to reply but otherwise didn't say anything. Nate stood watching her, feeling helpless, as she began measuring out ingredients for what appeared to be some sort of chocolate cake. He had only had to walk into the room to see that something was obviously bothering her, but his friend as well as being easy to read, was insanely stubborn, and the chances of her telling him outright what had upset her were next to nothing. He debated calling Mitchie to see if she knew what was going on, but he knew she was out on a date with Shane, and he didn't really want to disturb her.

As Caitlyn brushed past him to get some butter out of the fridge, he decided to help her out, and maybe the opportunity to ask her what was wrong would present itself.

"Can I help you?"

She looked at him as if just realising he was there and shrugged her shoulders. "If you want. Can you weigh the butter? The recipe's on the counter."

She moved away swiftly and Nate rolled up his sleeves and got to work. A half an hour later there were two trays of double chocolate muffins, not the chocolate cake that Nate had originally thought, in the oven and Caitlyn was setting the timer. She had barely said more than a few words while they had been concentrating on the recipe and Nate didn't know what, but something was definitely very wrong.

"Caitlyn? Will you please tell me what's wrong?" he finally asked.

He could almost tell that she was having an argument with herself in the few seconds before she answered.

"There's nothing wrong, Nate," was her final response. He refrained from rolling his eyes.

"Caitlyn, will you stop it? I know you and I can tell when something is wrong."

To his surprise she looked at her shoes and mumbled, "You'll think it's stupid."

He pulled out one of the stools and sat down, pulling out the other stool with his foot so she could take a seat and was pleasantly surprised when she did so.

"You saw that invitation, right?"

He nodded. He had thought it might have something to do with that.

"I just feel like I haven't done much since leaving high school." She looked up at him before continuing. "The other day, I bought a copy of The New York Times, and I was reading a really good article and I realised it was written by this guy I went to school with. He's writing for The New York Times, Nate. And I'm just sitting here, baking chocolate chip muffins to feel better about myself."

She slid off of the stool and began pacing across the kitchen. "And I know you're going to tell me I'm being stupid, because I did go to college and graduate and work on Mitchie's debut album, but it feels like nothing when I see what everyone else has been up to." She took a deep breath in and glanced at him. He was looking at her with an expression she couldn't identify.

For some reason, she didn't seem to be able to stop. "Sarah got married and had two kids; Amy's working two different jobs and planning to go to England for a few months to work there. And Ryan did Medicine, Nate. He's a doctor and he just graduated with a first class degree. And I _know _I'm being silly, I have my whole life ahead of me to do what I want, right?"

He nodded fervently. "Of course you do, Caitlyn. And I know you already know this, but to be able to produce tracks on a debut album is rarely something that a newcomer does. Especially for Mitchie Torres - "

"Nate, I know. I don't need you to tell me that," Caitlyn interrupted.

"Then what do you need me to do?"

He met her gaze across the kitchen but before she could answer, the oven timer rang.

She gave him a half smile. "I need you to pass me the oven mitts and help me get these muffins out."

Feeling slightly disappointed for some reason, he reached over and handed her the oven mitts. He had no idea a school reunion invitation had affected Caitlyn so much, or that she'd been feeling like this. It was clearly something that had been festering for some time, and he didn't know what he could do to make her feel better.

They worked together, in silence and set the muffins out to cool before Nate decided to continue the conversation from before.

"Caitlyn? What can I do to help you?"

She met his eyes and understood that he wasn't referring to the muffins.

"Nothing, Nate, I'm fine - "

She stopped talking, shocked that he had stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. She stood with her arms hanging lifelessly by her side before Nate rolled his eyes and said, "It is okay to hug me back, you know."

He felt the exact moment when she gave in and wrapped her arms around him, but he hadn't expected the muffled sobs that he heard almost immediately. He knew there wasn't some sort of magic solution to helping her feel better, but it didn't stop him wishing for one anyway. For now, all he could do was be there for his friend and hope that she would eventually see that it didn't matter what everyone else had done or what she hadn't done, but it was what she _had_ managed to accomplish that counted. And that she had friends and family who loved and respected her. And he was content just holding her until she realised that.


End file.
